Here is an example of the metacognitive knowledge you can learn for Preparation: In my page for Effective Learning Skills [the page you're now reading] the section for Active Listening (which is part of a section about Active Learning) begins with a brief description of the similarities and differences between actively reading & listening; this is followed by an in-depth examination of a strategy for learning from lectures in 3 phases (by what you do before, during, and after lectures), including the differences between pre-lecture preparation by using lecture notes (definitely do this) & textbook reading (maybe do this), and during lecture the time-sharing & time-shifting (for activities of listening & seeing, thinking and writing, plus metacognitive observing) that can help you learn-and-remember more effectively, and how to minimize distractions that begin externally or internally. [ This is a summary of what you'll find later in the page if you click the italicized inside-the-page linkforActive Listening. ]

If you want to explore these ideas more thoroughly, here are two options:
• the Cognitive-and-Metacognitive Strategy for Learning outlined above, which is preceded by "Combining Cognition with Metacognition in the Process of Coordinating Design" and a description of five strategies, including Educational Strategies for Learners and Teachers.
• Active-Learning Theories and Teaching Strategies which explains the basic principles of metacognition in a major section with 3 subsections: What is metacognition, and how is it useful? Metacognition as a Problem-Solving Approach to Personal Education & Metacognition and Formative Evaluation.

I.O.U. on September 8 — Tomorrow afternoon I'll return to revising this page, and hopefully the revision will be finished by mid-September 2011. Currently only the section for Active Learning has been recently revised.

20.3 Memory as a Problem-Solving Tool

Good problem solving requires an “active memory” that gives you
quick, reliable access to essential thinking tools. A good memory isn't
sufficient to make you an expert problem solver (you also need an effective blending of creativity with
logic) but it is necessary. To improve
your memory, take advantage of original awareness with intention to
remember, organization, and review.

STORAGE: ORIGINAL AWARENESS with INTENTION TO REMEMBER It is useful
to consider memory as a two-step process: storage and retrieval. If you
want to remember something, it must be “stored” in your memory. After being introduced to someone, have you
ever forgotten the name? When this happens you typically haven't forgotten
the name, because you never really “had it." But if you listen
carefully (original awareness) and then silently review the name (intention
to
remember), the name is now stored in your memory so you can remember it later.
When you find something worth remembering in your reading or problem-solving
practice,
stop for a few seconds and review it before you lose it!

RETRIEVAL: the importance of ORGANIZATION It's easy to find page 86 of a book, the
word “grace” in a dictionary, or a book in a library, due to organization.
Book pages are in numerical order, dictionary words are alphabetical, and library
books are arranged according to a system (Library of Congress, Dewey Decimal,...).
Logical organization also makes it easier to retrieve information from your memory. Here is an example.

Quiz #1: For a few seconds, look at these 22 letters: t s e
k h a u o e n d y g c a l h t e y n m
Then
close your eyes and try to remember all of them; don't leave any letters
out, and don't put any extras in.
If you
were given enough time and incentive, you could memorize these letters.
But there is a better way to do it — by using organization!

Quiz #2: Try to remember these letters after a few seconds of study:
sneaky the lunch dog my ate

Each quiz
contains the same 22 letters. So why is Quiz #2 easier to remember? 1) QUANTITY: It's easier to remember
6 things (in #2) than 22 things (in #1).
2) MEANING: Simply forming letter-groups isn't enough. Is it easy
to remember letter-groups like “temuy acnh gnte ysol aek dh"?
No, because they are not organized into words that have meaning. A meaningful
"lunch” is easy to remember, but not nonsensical letter-groups like “temuy”.
3) STRUCTURE:
Can you organize the words of Quiz #2 into a sentence? What does the dog
do?

RETRIEVAL:
the importance of REVIEW If
you want to remember something (concepts, equations, problem-solving strategies,...),
review it. A balanced combination — with review distributed throughout
the course, plus a massed cramming session before the exam — is better than
either one alone.
Various types of review offer
advantages. For example, Flash Cards require activity, Summary Notes provide organization,
and both let you make quick reviews of the entire chapter.
Generally, review is more effective when you are active.

SUMMARY NOTES

One powerful organizing technique is SUMMARY NOTES.
To make them, choose the most important ideas from your textbook, lecture
notes and problem-solving practice, then organize these ideas into a unified
summary. Be creative. If you're writing with a computer, use its advantages: it's easier for you to revise-and-supplement your notes, and you can make tables (to show relationships horizontally & vertically), plus other benefits. Or if you want to make some summaries by hand-writing, you can divide information into idea-clusters, spread
these all over the page, and use spatial cues to show their relationships; use flowcharts, hierarchy structure, outlines, tables, or free-form chaos. Experiment with different kinds of organization. Personalize your summary.
For example, an author may use several pages to explain a new concept, but you
can use a small phrase (that wouldn't make sense to anyone else) to quickly remind yourself about the
main concepts. Invent and use your own system of symbols ( + - vs ! ?
/ * x arrows linklines ... ), underlining and circling
(of various types), brackets { [ ( , differing print size, and (one of my
favorites) colors.

You can make your summary “from scratch." Or use a chapter
summary in this book [Physics: Power Tools for Problem Solving] as your starting point, and then change it in any way you
want. Make photocopies of my summary and you'll feel more free to experiment
creatively; if you don't like the changes you've made, just try it again
on another copy by keeping the changes you like, discarding those you don't, and revising in other ways.
Make a “rough-draft
summary” early. Then as you use these notes for problem-solving, think
about how you can change them to make a new improved version. You may find
it freeing to use a pencil for the rough draft. This encourages creativity
because you'll feel more spontaneous if you know it will be easy to revise the
summary later. In your early summary, include
everything you think might be useful. Then notice which tools are used most
often when you solve problems, and edit the summary accordingly. Eventually,
you'll want to travel lightly so your summary includes only the tools you
really need: no more and no less. When you eliminate “excess clutter”
the important ideas stand out more clearly.

You'll learn a lot during the “choose and organize” process of
making summary notes. And when you study it, a summary is useful in many
ways. It will help you to: 1) memorize.
When information is condensed in a small area you can literally see the
visual and logical interconnections, and it is easier to understand relationships.
Because the information is organized on paper, it is easier to organize in your
mind, which makes it easier to remember! And summary notes are short, so
you can do many quick yet thorough reviews. 2) develop problem-solving strategies. Most of the tools you need
are available in clear view, so you can focus your attention on how to use them. 3) acquire more knowledge. New
information is easier to understand when it is related to what you already know,
if it is a variation on a familiar theme, or is a logical consequence of a principle
you understand. Summary notes organize the essential ideas into a framework,
providing a structure where you can insert details and new ideas.

a Section Summary: The best way to insure good recall is good preparation,
to achieve storage. The final step of “retrieval” is usually easy
if you've done a good job with the earlier stages: 1) learn with intention-to-remember,
2) organize the information (with intrinsic logic or an external system),
3) review actively and often, using appropriate cues.
Other memory-improving tips are given in Sections 20.4
(the effects of interest and motivation), 20.5 (remembering
ideas from reading and lectures), and 20.93 (principles for customizing & minimizing this book's flashcard
cues, using sensory cues, plus memory tricks
& systems).

20.4 Concentration

According to the Random House Dictionary, concentration is “exclusive
attention to one object” and to concentrate is “to bring all
efforts, faculties, etc., to bear on one thing or activity." Good concentration
is an extremely valuable thinking tool.

Interest and Activity Do you have to “try
to concentrate” when you watch the climax of an exciting movie, or when you're
in the middle of a fascinating conversation? No; if you are truly interested
in an activity, good concentration is natural and effortless. In her excellent book “On Becoming an Educated Person,” Virginia
Voeks describes how interest-and-activity helps you learn more -- and have more
fun -- when you read: “Start with an intent to make the very most you
can from whatever you read. Treat the author as you do your friends.
When talking with a friend, you listen attentively and eagerly. You watch
for contributions of value and are sensitive to them. You actively respond
to his ideas with ones of your own. Together you build new syntheses." You can read with similar expectations and
results. Expect the author to present facts you had not known before, to
offer new ideas, to give new slants on old problems and to formulate new problems.
When alert to these things, you will see them. Reading becomes refreshingly
stimulating fun. Of course, you can use this positive attitude for all of
your studying. Listening to a lecture becomes an exciting conversation,
reviewing flashcards is a self-testing game, making a summary is a chance to be
logical-and-creative with no grading pressure, and solving problems is a fun,
idea-stimulating challenge.

Ignoring
Distractions The human mind responds
to sensory input (sight, sound,...) and also constantly generates its own ideas.
When these mental activities interfere with what you are trying to think about,
it causes external distraction (due to sensory input) or internal distraction (due to your thinking), respectively. By using metacognition (being aware of your thinking, and thinking about it) you can more accurately understand why you're being distracted, and how you can maximize your concentration where you want to focus. The best way to cope with either kind of distraction is to provide competition,
with interest and activity. During an interesting conversation
it is easy to totally ignore distractions (or tell them to “go away, don't
bother me now, I'm busy") and keep good concentration. When you develop
an interest in what you're studying, distractions won't have a chance. And
if you are extremely active (reading, listening, thinking, reviewing, note-taking, ...)
your mind is so filled with thoughts about physics that there is “no room”
left for a distraction to squeeze into. If you have a valuable thought about a non-physics topic, quickly write it down.
The thought is on paper as a reminder, so you don't have to worry about forgetting
it and you can return to studying with full concentration. Later, look at
the paper and give the thought your undivided attention.
Taking notes during a lecture requires a combination of externally and
externally directed concentration. You must receive information (listen),
process it (think) and preserve it (write). Section 20.5 discusses ways
to improve your note-making skill: prepare before the lecture, concentrate
during it, and review afterward.
If possible,
study in a quiet place. But when noise occurs, ignore it and remember that
your own response (of interest or irritation) is often the main distraction,
not the noise itself. If you learn to concentrate despite noise, you increase
your own freedom because you can study in a wider variety of situations, independent
of other people's actions. This will also increase the freedom of others, since you can give them your “permission” to do what they want.

BUILDING
UP GOOD CONCENTRATION: First, practice high-quality concentration under
ideal conditions, like an easy interesting subject for a short time in a quiet
place. Then practice keeping good concentration when you're in non-ideal
situations, until you can study a difficult boring subject for a long time in
a noisy place. { A similar “building up” strategy can be
used to improve many other skills.}

Fully Alive! Do you ever think “when I'm not studying I feel like I should be,
and when I am studying I wish I wasn't"? If there is conflict between
your perceptions of what you “should” do and what you want to do, it
will cause a waste of mental and emotional effort, like two tug-of-war teams pulling
in opposite directions. The key to resolving
this conflict is balance. All work and no play (or vice versa) does
not lead to a happy, productive, full life. Don't make yourself choose between
work and play. Do both with enthusiasm!

Studying is a two-step, two-level process: 1) just do it, 2)
do it with gusto! You can make yourself
study with willpower and the procrastination-avoiding techniques of Section 20.7.
To reach the gusto level, which is more efficient and more fun, generate interest
with the “positive attitude” that was discussed earlier, and generate
motivation with a “piecework incentive” attitude. When you are paid by the hour, you earn the same amount of money no matter
how slow or fast you work. But with a piecework salary the more you produce
the more you earn, so you get to harvest the rewards of your own efficiency. Studying is a piecework activity. If
you are efficient, you automatically receive a higher “learning per hour”
salary -- you'll learn a lot quickly, and will feel a real satisfaction about
studying. Later, when you “play” you can relax and enjoy it because
you won't be nagged by worries about unfinished schoolwork.

Be fully alive! Wherever you are, be all there. Whatever you're
doing, do it fully.

Factors that contribute to Success in Physics Motivation is important, but
just wanting something doesn't make it happen. This diagram shows some of the factors that contribute to success in physics:

Many arrows
point toward the first box because many factors, including success in physics,
affect your self image, values and goals. These in turn influence your decisions
about the time you'll spend studying physics, and what your attitude is during
this time. The quantity and quality of your studying (plus natural ability
and previous background) determine your knowledge of physics and problem solving
skill, and (along with exam-taking skill) your performance on exams. Try to learn from each exam so the next time you will do better in any
part of the cycle ( self image, time & attitude, tools, exam skill) that
needs improving. Physics tools are interdependent, so an improvement in
one part of the cycle also improves other parts of it and your overall skill can
improve rapidly. For example, if you're
good at doing something you'll probably like it (this is the opposite of “sour
grapes"), and if you like it you'll usually become better at doing it.
When you break into this cycle by improving your “attitude while studying”
your exam scores will also improve, which makes it easier to be enthusiastic about
studying for the next exam, and you're into a very nice cycle. It helps when you have hope, when can see progress toward “knowing
your stuff,” because you have a reason for realistic confidence and hope,
and enthusiasm.

Factors
that contribute to Concentration
Concentration is a “master skill” that affects everything you
do. If you have good concentration (represented by *'s on the diagram
above) you will learn more during study and perform better on exams. But
what is good concentration? You don't get it by “trying to concentrate",
but by focusing on what you are doing, as you search
for insight and use problem solving tools
effectively and study actively (20.5) with the goal
of increasing your knowledge and skill. As emphasized earlier in “Fully Alive,” motivation is important. A confident “lack of worrying” usually
helps, but it isn't necessary. You can learn and perform well in spite of
anxiety, if you have a positive action focus. Instead of worrying
about negatives (what you fear, dislike, or want to avoid), focus your full attention
on the “positive” of what you want to accomplish and the action you're
taking to reach that goal. It is usually
good to study enthusiastically with high intensity, trying to learn a lot
in a short time. Use piecework incentive! I've noticed that many of
my best ideas and exam performances come when I'm “trying really hard." But creative ideas and good performance also
occur during times of relaxation. One colorful example involves the
great scientist Archimedes. Over 2000 years ago he was appointed to test
a king's crown, to find out if it made of pure gold, as ordered, or if less costly
(and lighter-weight) silver had been mixed in. To complete his analysis,
Archimedes needed a way to find the volume of the crown. For awhile, the
answer eluded him. But one day as he stepped into the bath he saw the water
level rise, and suddenly he knew how to find the crown's volume! Archimedes
was so delighted that he jumped from the water and ran naked into the street gleefully
shouting “I found it! I found it!" In many situations a mixture of freedom-from-worry and high intensity,
a sort of “relaxed alertness,” will help you to think more effectively. physical fitness and mental fitness:
There is an intimate connection between mind and body. Each affects the
other. If you take better care of your body with “whole-person living”
that includes good nutrition, exercise and (of course) getting enough rest, your
concentration and thinking quality will improve. It isn't easy to know what produces good concentration because many factors
are involved, their effect varies from one person to another, and the goal of
thinking depends on the situation. For example, the concentration needed
for early exam-preparation (reading, lecture-listening, making summary notes,
problem-solving while searching for insight, ...) is a little different than
the concentration you need during an exam when you must work very fast.
This is why Section 20.6 urges you to do “realistic practice” during
late exam-preparation. There is also a
difference between converging thinking, when your thought is focused on
a single well-defined goal, and divergent thinking, when you search for
creative ideas but aren't sure what the ideas will be until you actually get them.
And some types of mental organization, especially for big projects that synthesize
a variety of ideas, require a special kind of logic that works best when you think
clearly but in a “diffuse” way, with your attention spread over a large
area so you see “the big picture,” the overall patterns and links-between-ideas,
how pieces of the puzzle fit together to form a unified and coherent whole. As with most skills, a good way to develop
concentration is to search for insights. Notice what works best
for you in different situations, and practice until fast, clever, reliable thinking
becomes a natural and easy habit.

20.5 Active Reading and Listening

Activity makes studying more fun and more efficient. Other parts
of this book discuss the activities of making summary notes, using flash cards, and solving problems. This section focuses on two important active-learning skills: reading and listening.

Even though some educators sometimes imply that active learning requires physical activity — that students must “do” something (by discussing issues, solving problems,...) to learn in an active way — a major theme of my page about Active Learning is that "cognitive activity does not require physical activity."

Active
Reading

FLEXIBILITY:
Decide what your purpose is, and adjust your reading accordingly.
You may want to aim for maximum understanding, to get out of a book everything
the author put into it. Often, however, your goal is more specific:
you want to learn the book's main ideas, or look for a specific fact, gather ideas for
a term paper,...
Each goal requires
a different approach, but here is a basic principle: Unless you really need total
comprehension, you should resist the compulsion to read every word in a
chapter or every page in a book. For example, most experts suggest that you preview a textbook chapter to discover its
overall content and structure, before you read the chapter. To do a quick preview, read the introduction
and summary, look at section titles, things in special print
(large, or in bold, italic, underline) and perhaps diagrams, whatever seems important. This quick preview usually is a pre-reading, intended to be followed by a reading that is more thorough, although probably not aiming for total comprehension. Or it could be followed by reading only some parts of the chapter, or even none of it.
At a broader level, for an entire book you can do a quick survey (similar to a preview) by looking at the chapter
and section titles in the table of contents, plus reading the back dust-cover and perhaps parts of the introduction or foreword. Then you can decide whether or not you want to read some parts (those that seem
interesting or useful) or the entire book, and either way you have the “big picture overview” understanding that you gained from the survey.
To find the places
where a book discusses a specific idea, check the index. Or use the table of contents to find likely chapters, then check its section headings. To search through text for a specific idea, form a mental image of the idea and use this as a “search target” when you
scan pages while comparing your search-image with what you're seeing on the pages, searching for a match.
a summary: When you read with flexibility, you want to read for a purpose, in a goal-directed mission that is guided by an appopriate reading strategy.

SPEED: One simple, effective speed technique is effort —
just try to read faster. Another, as described above, is to be flexible so you
don't waste time by reading more closely (and slowly) than is necessary.
You should read groups of words, not one word at a time. This
is easier if you focus your eyes slightly above the tops of the letters; as an experiment, try reading
a line with only the top half of the letters visible, with the bottom half visible,
and compare the results. Or practice making fewer eye fixations per line
(your eyes see clearly only when they temporarily stop) and decreasing the time-per-stop.
Move only your eyes (not your head), don't “lip sync”
the words by mentally pronouncing them, and minimize unnecessary backtracking — by contrast with the productive backtracking you use after you realize (due to your metacognitive awareness) that you don't understood what you just read. Most important,
practice reading faster, to discover effective reading techniques (this is a cognitive-and-metacognitive Learning Strategy) and to develop good
habits. If your college offers a reading improvement course, it might be
a wise use of your time to take it and get some expert advice.
To QUICKLY LEARN (reading speed plus mental comprehension-and-remembering) you must gather information
quickly with your eyes by using the “mechanics” suggestions in the previous
paragraph, and process it quickly using the “thinking skills” discussed
throughout this section.

COMPREHENSION: Accurately interpret the author's ideas. Read carefully, think about sentence
structure and word meaning [use the scientific “technical” definition of words
like velocity, acceleration, force, work, energy and heat, not “everyday
meanings”], study the diagrams, work out the examples & derivations,
and answer the questions that are asked because they are designed to stimulate your thinking and
this will help you learn.
As described
in Section 20.95, at a certain stage
of the writing process a writer can make an outline that is organized in
a “visual form” to show relationships (logical, historical, cause-effect,
application, flowchart, hierarchy,...) between ideas. A writer translates
these ideas into a logical sequence so they can be printed in the linear-format sequence
that you read in linear order, one word after another. If you
are a good reader you will try to translate ideas in the reverse direction, from
linear to visual, so you can understand the relationships that the writer
is communicating:

VISUAL OUTLINE,
with relationships
clearly organized

—(writer)→
←(reader)—

LINEAR WRITING
(so you must find
the relationships)

This ↔ translation is sort of like “freeze dried” food where water is removed and then (when you want to eat the food) is restored.
When a book is printed in linear form, the writer's “visual organization”
is removed, but it can be restored by a skilled reader who does linear-to-relational
translation, with a logical organization that often can be represented visually. A good way to do this is by using “visual thinking”
to make summary notes, as discussed in Section 20.3.
{ Occasionally a book has helpful diagrams that show logical structure. }
If you study many levels of geographical mapping (campus,
neighborhood, city, state, region, country, world, solar system, galaxy, universe) you will discover relationships that are impossible
to see when you only look at one level. Similarly, it is useful to study
the organization of ideas at different levels of detail: sentence, paragraph,
subsection, section, chapter and book.

CRITICAL THINKING: Don't believe everything you read, but do be ready and
eager to learn from your reading. When a book discusses ideas about politics,
philosophy or religion, use evaluative thinking. This is usually called critical thinking, but it's important to remember that "critical thinking is not necessarily being ‘critical’ and negative. In fact, a more accurate term would be evaluative thinking. The result of evaluation can range from positive to negative, from acceptance to rejection or anything in-between; critical evaluation can produce a glowing recommendation." Keep an open mind in trying to understand ideas, think carefully about facts and their interpretation, consider the author's
bias, then think for yourself and decide what you do and don't want to “accept” as an accurate description of the way things are in the world.
When a physics book describes how nature behaves,
you can usually be confident the author isn't trying to mislead you. But
what can you do when a textbook theory disagrees with your “common sense
intuition”? After you realize there is a conflict, you can use the
same strategy that a scientist uses to evaluate competing theories: you ask “Which
theory gives a better explanation of the facts?” If you decide to change
one of your previous theories about “the way things are and the way things behave,” try to apply your new understanding of nature to
physics problems and also to real-life situations outside the classroom.
Also consider different levels of understanding. Do you understand
how a television set works? If this means a knowledge of how to design or
repair it, you'll probably say NO. But on a practical level, you can say
YES if you know how to plug it in, turn it on, flip the dial, and watch.
There are levels-of-understanding in every area of life. Sometimes it is
important to learn all you can about an idea and try to understand it fully, including many of the details.
At other times it's better to just use what you know and don't worry about
any loose ends and unanswered questions. Knowing what should be put into
each category is an important part of wisdom.

CREATIVE THINKING: Often you'll want to use a book for inspiration, to help you
generate your own creative ideas. Look for ways to combine your new and old knowledge.
Ask “How does this fit into the structure of what I already know?”
But remember which ideas are yours, and which are the author's. Don't
"put ideas on her page” that she didn't intend to be there. And
don't plagiarize by claiming that you discovered ideas when you actually read
them in her book.
Creativity and
critical thinking are discussed more fully in my link-pages for Creative Thinking and Critical Thinking.

STOP-AND-GO READING: A good way to understand & remember
ideas is to read for awhile, stop and think, read more, stop and think, read,
stop, and so on. What should you do when you stop? Think, recite,
write.Think — Read for awhile,
then do one or more of the thinking activities described throughout this subsection: try to
comprehend what the book is saying, do critical thinking, and let the author's
ideas inspire your own ideas.Recite — When you find something worth remembering, look away from the book and say the
idea to yourself, either mentally or aloud. This activity helps move the
idea from temporary short-term memory where, like
the “vanished name-introduction” of Section 20.3, it can be easily lost,
into permanent long-term memory. Recitation
provides original awareness with intention to remember and makes you practice
the active recall you'll need for answering questions, and solving problems
on exams or in life. Timing is important, because you must capture ideas while they're
still in your short-term memory. Don't wait until the end of the chapter
to do reviews; recite often, during stop-and-go breaks, while you're reading.
Kenneth Higbee, author of the excellent
book, Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It, summarizes
the scientific research on recitation: "The effectiveness of recitation does
not depend on whether the learners are dull or bright, whether the material is
long or short, whether the material is meaningful or not — in virtually every
case it is more efficient to read and recite than to just read. A recent
introductory psychology textbook discussing learning strategies concluded that
‘recitation is the most powerful tool in all learning.’"Write — Use a pen or pencil to underline, circle or bracket the most
important parts, or highlight them
with a translucent marker. You can also write your own notes (comments or
summaries) in the book's margin or on a separate piece of paper. If you
have good book-marking or notes, it preserves much of the thinking you've done
while reading; this will help when you review or re-read the chapter.
Will stop-and-go reading slow you down? Yes, but that can be good.
If original awareness is minimal and you don't understand-and-remember what you
read, it would be more appropriate to call it “wasting time” than “reading”.
Activity breaks will help you understand and remember; because of this increased
efficiency of learning, frequent brief stops can save you time in the long run.

RE-READING: Use “successive approximations” to get
an increasingly accurate and complete understanding. It is often useful
to do three readings: a quick survey, careful reading, and re-reading. Depending
on your time, purpose and motivation, re-reading can be done carefully, or a quick
review of the important points (use your notes and book-marking as a guide), or
just read what you need for doing problems.

Use a Learning Strategy in which (like the welder or skier in my own experiences) you “search for insight” so you can develop an
effective way to combine your reading (surveying, careful reading, re-reading) with other important
activities: listening to lectures, making a summary, problem-solving practice,
and reviewing for an exam.

Active
Listening This is like active
reading, but with two major differences.
During
a lecture you can learn from what is said (the content), and also how it is said (the style) by paying attention to inflection and rhythm, emphasis, voice
pitch, posture, facial expressions and hand gestures.
You control the pace of your reading, but a
speaker talks as fast as they want. Unless a lecture is recorded,
stop-and-go listening is not practical. Instead you must do five (or more) things almost-simultaneously — listen, see (for facial expressions,... and to get information on a blackboard, powerpoint slides,...), mentally process ideas, and write notes, plus metacognitive observing. Here are three ways to improve your skill in listening-seeing-processing-writing-observing.

PREPARE BEFORE THE LECTURE
How? Review your notes from previous lectures. If the teacher's lecture notes from a previous semester
are available, read them for a preview.
Why? Because the more you know about a subject already, the easier it will be to learn more. In physics and most other subjects, with almost all skilled teachers the lectures are cumulative, so the next lecture will build on previous lectures. If you understand the knowledge (the ideas-and-skills) in previous lectures, this solid foundation will help you learn new knowledge in the next lecture, and solidify what you already know. You can probably write less in your notes because you already know many of the ideas-and-skills, so only a quick reminder that today “this idea/skill was explained” is sufficient. You can do more thinking-while-listening,
and it will be easier to make quick decisions about what is important enough to
put in your notes.
Should you read the textbook before lecture? The answer is not simple (so this paragraph is long and is split into several parts) because there are two factors, based on two principles: 1) For the same reasons that reviewing lecture notes is useful, reading relevant parts of the book will help you understand the lecture. 2) But hearing the lecture will help you understand the book. Which is more important, 1 or 2? / Although this depends on your situation, often it's best to read the relevant parts of your textbook before lecture. But don't waste time by getting bogged down in reading when you don't understand, especially if help is available from the instructor, TAs, or fellow students who are your study partners in study groups; usually your instructor has selected a textbook that is well written, and if you think logically the ideas-and-skills will make sense, so “give it your best shot” and maybe it will all fit together. But if it still doesn't make sense after a reasonable investment of your time, you can move on temporarily and make a note that you'll want to re-read this part later. Hopefully when you re-read it you'll know more because in lecture the teacher has explained it clearly in a way that will help you understand, especially if you have prepared by trying to learn it from the book. Or you can ask fellow students, or a TA during class or in office hours. And then you can re-read the book to get a fuller understanding. / But maybe your best strategy is to read the book after lecture, especially if your instructor's lectures are designed & performed — and are used by you — in a way that is highly effective in helping you learn. Also, after lecture you may have a better idea of what the teacher thinks is and isn't most important in the book; this perspective can help you develop an effective strategy for reading with a flexible goal-directed strategy. / Either way, whether you read before or after lecture, or both, here are some useful ideas: If you compare the treatment of material by the textbook
and teacher, you will learn something about the teacher's emphasis; and, of course, the assigned problems are clues about emphasis. Try to master each sub-area (by learning from lecture & book, doing problems,...) before you must move on to the next sub-area, especially when (as is typically the case in physics & most other subjects) many of the ideas-and-skills are cumulative so understanding this week will help you understand next week.
a summary: Definitely review previous lectures. Probably read the textbook before lecture (and after), but maybe read it mainly afterward. Definitely master each sub-area (by learning from lecture & textbook & discussions, working problems,...) before you must move onward.

CONCENTRATE
DURING THE LECTURE
If you do high-quality practice, if you consistently listen with quality — relaxed yet alert, focused, motivated, confident — you can improve your skill in active listening with productive concentration.
When you develop a strategy for learning from lecture by actively listening, an important decision (in your overall strategy and at each moment during a lecture) is how much of your limited mental resources you will devote to each aspect of the learning process, by listening & seeing, thinking and writing, plus metacognitive observing. Sometimes some of these activities can overlap to produce simultaneous time-sharing, but often you will do time-shifting by quickly shifting from one to another. You can try to improve each skill, and your strategy for blending them together in a productive way.
Try to minimize distractions - both external and internal – by totally focusing on the lecture. You can also use metacognitive awareness to observe your skill in focusing despite distractions of different types, so you can develop better strategies for improving your focus.
Practice writing as fast as you can. Push your limits! Develop your
own system of abbreviations, especially for words that you use often: w = with,
fex = for example, and so on. Try leaving out vowels, as in “rdng,
wrtng, rthmtc."
If the speaker is
dull, use willpower to motivate yourself. With a skilled speaker, don't
think that you will automatically remember the lecture just because it is presented
clearly; you should take useful notes anyway.

REVIEW
SOON AFTER THE LECTURE
Even though you won't be able to capture the whole content of
a lecture in your notes, part of what's missing (in your notes) is preserved by your memory
(in your mind), but only temporarily. If you review your notes soon after the lecture while your
memory is fresh, you can use the notes to remind you of weakly remembered ideas
that will fade and vanish unless they are reinforced during an after-the-lecture
review. You can add these ideas to your notes. And it is easier to interpret
your abbreviations and condensations at this time than it will be later.
Don't rewrite your notes; just fill the gaps, make comments in the margins (leave
some space while writing), and do whatever is required to give your notes the logical structure of a coherent overview-summary.
Do you see why a well-timed review can improve your memory and also your
notes?

Overlap of Phases: Of course, two of these time-phases (REVIEW and PREPARE) overlap because Reviewing After one lecture is Preparing Before the next lecture.Other Activities: For a wider range of productive activities (before, during, and after lectures) you can use Cognitive-and-Metacognitive Strategies for Learning. For example, you can experiment with different ways to “pay attention” and distribute your limited mental resources among the five aspects of active listening (listen/see, think & write, observe); for each experiment-with-aspects you can observe the results and this will help you understand the effects of different combinations, so you can decide what works best for achieving different goals. You can also run these experiments (and others) in different situations — for example, with lecturers in two physics courses, or in physics & biology & psychology & history — to learn more about the effects of attention-distributing factors in different contexts.

TRANSFER OF SKILLS: The focus of this subsection is learning from a lecture, but similar strategies & skills (appropriately modified for context) can be used in a wide range of situations, such as a conversation or group discussion, when you watch a movie or basketball game,...

a related topic: A few ideas about Active Writing are in Section 20.95.

20.6 Exam Preparation and Performance

You probably have two learning goals for every college course: 1)
to learn things that will be useful in your future courses, in a career and in
life, and 2) to do well on exams so you'll get a good grade and “GPA
credit” for what you know. This section
will focus on the more urgent second goal, but the principles are just
as useful for reaching the more important first goal.

1) Gather Information Read the professor's
course syllabus carefully. If you miss the start of a lecture, when exam
announcements are often made, check with other students to find out what you missed.
During lectures, listen for subtle clues (or obvious statements) about what the
teacher thinks is interesting and important. Try to “get oriented”
and find out, as soon as possible: What
are you expected to KNOW and be able to DO? Will you be asked to solve problems,
analyze statements about theory, or remember specific details? If there
are problems, will they be like those in the assigned homework? Will the
exam emphasize material from the text or lectures? What is the grading policy? How much of the course grade is determined
by midterms? by the final exam? by extras like quizzes, homework,
labs, projects, papers, class discussion,...? Will students be graded “on
a curve"? What is the exam format?
Open book or closed book? Will you do problems and show your work? do machine
graded multiple choice? true-false? fill in the blanks? Will there be “qualitative”
questions? Will the exam reward speed in doing many easy problems, or in
figuring out a few difficult ones? If possible, try to get one of the teacher's
old exams; this will give you a better idea of what to expect.Selectivity is important. You have a limited amount of time
to invest in each class. You'll want to use this time wisely, and this requires
making choices.

2) Early
Exam Preparation Use the study suggestions
from Sections 20.1, 20.3 & 20.5: learn from problem-solving practice,
make summary notes, read and listen actively. Do most of your studying early,
so you can “cram” effectively later.

3) Late Exam Preparation
Cramming will help you get better grades. When you practice fact-recalling
and problem-solving in the days before an exam, very little “fading”
occurs between studying and the exam, so your memory and skill levels remain high.
But if you use the time before an exam for “original learning” that
could have been done earlier, you're wasting time that is extremely valuable for
memory and skill practice. To be effective, cramming
should be a supplement to earlier study, not a replacement. It should
be mainly consolidation (review & practice) of knowledge and skill
that have been built on a solid foundation over a long period of time.

If the exam is CLOSED BOOK, memorize everything you'll need to know.
{ If you find out what information will be “given” on the exam, it decreases
the amount you have to memorize.} Practice solving problems without your
summary notes, using only the information that you'll be able to use during the
exam. If the exam is SEMI-OPEN (when you
can use a limited amount of your own notes), make a rough-draft summary early,
practice using it for homework problems and revise it to make an improved exam
version. If your summary is over the size limit, make a photocopy reduction;
at 64%, two pages condense into one. If
the exam is OPEN BOOK, it still helps to prepare. Make a summary so you
can quickly find things (on the summary or in the book) during the exam.
If you'll need to use textbook data-tables, know where they're located. When you study for a FINAL EXAM, review your midterms. They are an
example of what the teacher thinks is important. Sometimes teachers put
midterm questions, either as-is or slightly modified, on the final exam.

Realistic Practice RELEVANCE. When
you seek out and solve problems similar to those you expect to encounter later,
on an exam or in real-life situations, this realistic practice makes it more likely
that in the future the information within a problem will trigger your memory of
useful problem-solving strategies. SPEED.
If you always do homework problems slowly you'll get accustomed to “thinking
slowly." If you work at a comfortable slow pace you may not finish
a typical exam, but if you suddenly change to “fast thinking” it may
be difficult to avoid the rushed, frantic feeling that can lead to mistakes.
If you practice solving problems quickly before the exam, your ability to do fast-yet-clear
thinking will improve, and so will your exam score. { By doing homework
quickly you also get to practice a wider variety of problems in the same amount
of study time; this extra experience will help during the exam. You may
find it useful to try this stop-and-go combination: mix fast-thinking solutions
with pauses to “search for insight” like the skier and welder. } Here is some excellent advice (for musicians or test takers) paraphrased
from The Art of Trombone Playing by Edward Kleinhammer: When you practice
at home pretend you're in the concert hall, and when you're in the concert hall
pretend you're at home. Let's examine these suggestions. First, practice
"quality” playing -- with good tone, accurate rhythm and melodic feeling,
just like you'll want to play during the performance. Later, instead of
being nervous you can play with the same un-selfconscious relaxed concentration
you had in your living room. And because you've practiced playing with good
quality until it feels natural and comfortable, it will be easier for you to play
with this same good quality during the performance. You can use this “practice --> performance” strategy to improve
your exam scores. During late exam preparation, practice doing problems
quickly and confidently. Then work quickly and confidently during the exam,
just like you did in practice.

4) Exam Performance The most reliable way
to do well on exams is good preparation, as described above in 1-3. But
the
quality
of
your
thinking during the exam is also important. Some exam excitement is normal and — if you use it wisely — is helpful. Instead
of
interpreting
this
as harmful
"anxiety” you should choose to think of it as helpful “energetic
alertness." You
can use your nervous energy for constructive action, and/or try
to
get
more
relaxed, physically
and mentally, by breathing slow, deep, and natural. However you feel, it's
OK because, whether
you
feel excited
or relaxed, it's what you do that counts, so concentrate on the here-and-now
action of answering the exam questions. { In most situations,
experienced
speakers,
stage performers and athletes get excited before their event. But once
the action begins, their focus quickly shifts to doing whatever they have to
do, and they perform well. And so can you. } KNOW YOURSELF: Do you perform better
in
some
situations
than in others? If you can figure out what causes this difference in
response, maybe you can learn to “focus your excitement” and perform well in
a wider range of situations. MOTIVATION: Avoid extremes
of apathy or anxiety. An effective combination is a strong desire to do
well
coupled
with a lack of excessive worry about the outcome. { Attitude,
self
image and concentration are discussed more fully in Section 20.4. } PRACTICE: Use each exam as a chance to “practice doing your
best",
to perform as well as your abilities and preparation allow. The accumulated
effect of this practice will improve your skill at facing high pressure situations,
in or out of school, with confidence and self-control. This is a valuable
skill to learn. { Different aspects of
school let you practice thinking that is “deep” and “quick”.
In many life situations you work as a member of a group, are given a relatively
large amount of time to solve problems (much longer than in an exam), are asked
to do analysis that is deep, creative, complete, detailed and correct, and to
make wise decisions. In other situations, as an individual you must do
quick evaluation-and-decision: for example, when you listen to a lecture, participate
in
a
conversation
or debate, give first aid or respond to other emergencies, play sports
or drive a car. Quick thinking is also useful for long-term projects
because,
as discussed in the “Efficiency” part of Section 20.7, “total
time
= sum of parts." You practice deep thinking when you make summary
notes,
write a term paper, or do a research project. You practice quick thinking
when you listen to lectures, and solve problems quickly in homework or exams. }

POINT STRATEGY: In case you don't finish the entire exam, try to
get maximum points by deciding which questions to answer first. Consider
these factors: How many points is a particular
question worth? How certain are you of
getting it correct? How much time will
doing it require? PACING: Start the
exam working at “optimal pace” -- at a speed that you think is
the
best
combination
of maximum speed with minimum error. After awhile, compare your progress
with the time remaining and ask, “Working at the present pace, will I be able
to
finish
the exam?”; If necessary, adjust your speed.

If you have a question, suspect an exam error, or if formulas are supplied
on the exam and you need one that isn't there, ask the teacher about it. If you're not sure about the answer for a question, record your thoughts
(cross
off
multiple
choice options you've eliminated, write short comments,...) and go on to
the next question. Take advantage of “incubation” and when you
return to the question later in the exam, you may know the answer. Should you guess? Usually, but it depends on the grading policy and
the “expected returns” from guessing. If you finish early, check your work.

5) After the Exam Think about what happened
so you can learn from it, for each phase discussed above. How was your preparation? Knowing what you do now, would you approach
it differently? In what specific ways? How much “exam excitement” did you have? Did it seem to help or
hurt you? How was your pacing? Point
strategy? For each question you missed, ask WHY? Was it due to a lack
of knowledge and skill, or was it a problem you should have been able to solve
but didn't? Ask the questions from the “How
To Learn More from your Problem-Solving Experience” and “Find
The Trouble and Fix It” parts of Section 20.2. Can you gain any insights from this experience? What wise advice
would you give, if you could talk to yourself two weeks before the exam?
Two days before it? At the start of the exam? Halfway through it? Can these insights help you prepare for your
next exam?

20.7 Using Your Time Effectively

Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that's the stuff
life is made of. { Benjamin Franklin, 1746 } Three ways to use your time more effectively are wise planning,
good timing, and increased efficiency.

Planning The foundation of planning
is knowing yourself and what you want to do with your abilities and opportunities.
{ This doesn't necessarily mean having a specific career goal. As a student,
your immediate goal may be to earn grades (and skills) that give you good options
to choose from later. } Wise planning is choosing daily activities
that help you make progress toward your long-term goals. In his excellent
book “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life,” Alan Lakein describes
the relationship between goals and activities: “When you have planned well on both long-term and short-term levels,
then goals and activities fit together like well-meshed gears. Most if not
all of the activities specified in short-term plans will contribute to the realization
of the goals specified in long-term plans."

When should you plan? In the evening (so you can review the previous
day and plan for the next) or morning (when you're well rested and ready to go),
or at any time during the day when you ask Lakein's Question, “What is the best use of my
time right now?" A useful time-management
tool is a daily To-Do List. First think of
all the things you might want to do, then set priorities -- it is very
important that you do certain activities today (so be sure you do them), others
would be nice to do but they aren't “necessary", while some probably
shouldn't be done at all (cross them off your list). Then use this prioritized
list to plan your activities for the day. You can use a time schedule, or just “improvise as you go." The
ideal amount of scheduling structure depends on your personal preference and the
situation. For example, when I tutor students a schedule is essential, but
during work on this book I just wake up and start writing, then take breaks (for
a nap, walk, prayer, eating...) whenever I'm in the mood for it. Try different
mixes of structure and spontaneity, and find out what works best for you in different
situations. BALANCE. Your daily plan
can include studying, rest and recreation, work and play, solitude and socializing.
Leave some flexibility for “surprises." A portable to-do list (like a 3 x 5 card in your pocket) increases
the probability of getting activities done, and decreases your memory load --
you don't have to think about “what to do today” so your mind is free
for creative thinking. I use a cheap alarm watch to remind me that
it's time to go to class, or catch a bus, or... The purpose of planning is to use time effectively. It's all right
if you don't finish all of the activities on a to-do list. If a list gets
you to use your time for high priority activities, it has served its purpose.

A little time invested in planning (it can be done quickly!) is a great
investment. If you ever feel “too busy to plan", consider it a
reminder about the importance of planning -- you don't have enough time to do
everything you want, so it is essential that you decide how to use your limited
time wisely. When you set priorities, consider
urgency and long-term importance. To find out if something is urgent, ask
"What will happen if I don't do this today?”; Urgency tends to
demand action, but non-urgent activities can be just as important because their
effects are “cumulative” -- for example, brushing teeth, nutrition &
physical fitness, and preparing for an end-of-semester term paper or final exam.
Be sure to do non-urgent yet important activities on a regular basis. Occasionally, to keep things in perspective,
stop for introspection, orientation and long-term planning. Re-think your
present situation (Where am I now?), values and goals (Where do I want to go?),
and time use (Are my activities effective in bringing me closer to my goals?).
Use orientation times to make a master list of activities. Write
your goals on the left side of a page, and activities that will help you reach
each goal on the right side. Then use this master list to help you make
daily to-do lists.

A whole-semester schedule
of “things to do” will help you plan ahead, so you can skillfully coordinate
your daily and long-term activities. On this schedule, put the due-dates
for everything that must be done (homework, exams, papers,... ) for each of your classes, and also “advance warnings” to remind you that (for example) you should begin writing your term paper at least a week ahead of time, plus extra events (sports, concerts, special lectures,...). If you want, you can make a schedule that is more complex, with more rows, so you'll have one for each of your classes plus another for events.

M

T

W

R

F

A

U

Sep
7

Sep 14

etc

Timing Good timing lets you take advantage
of opportunities while they're still available. Timing is an important part of planning; you are deciding what to
do and also when to do it. But planning doesn't always lead to doing.
A valuable time-use tool (Lakein devotes 1/3 of his book to it) is the ability
to convert planning into action at the proper time. If you avoid an activity that you know is “high priority,” you
are procrastinating. You are especially likely
to avoid a task you feel is unpleasant or overwhelming, or if you
have doubts about whether you should do it. If you have doubts, re-think the situation and ask “Is this something
I should do? Is it a top-priority project?”; If you answer NO,
decide what you should do instead. If you answer YES, then you can move
into action with increased confidence that you are doing what you should be doing.

It may help to think about why you are avoiding a project. Does the
project involve work you find unpleasant? Is it in any way unethical?
Could it be dangerous (physically, socially, financially,...)? Are you afraid
of failure, or the changes in life that success might bring? Ask yourself, “Is there any way I can decrease the project's unpleasant aspects, or change my
attitudes toward them?”; The “unknown”
is a common reason for fear. If a project requires doing things you've never
done before, it may be wise to get advice from someone with experience. { Talk
with an expert, or ask a librarian to help you find useful books or magazine articles.}

Alan Lakein suggests turning an overwhelming project into “Swiss Cheese”
by poking holes in it with small tasks that are quick and easy to do. You
can gather information, do brainstorming (as described in Section
20.8), make a plan of action, or begin work on some aspect of the project.
After you've poked a few holes in it, the project may not look so overwhelming. Hopefully, your first small steps will lead
to full scale action. If your initial involvement leads to interest-and-enthusiasm,
which leads to more involvement and more interest, you'll want to continue working
on the project. But if your first steps
don't lead to eager involvement, you have to use willpower. This
is easier when you give yourself logical reasons for “doing what you don't want to
do." Ask yourself, “What are the consequences of delay, and what are
the benefits of doing the project now?”; Convince yourself that since
you have to do the project anyway, sometime, you might as well choose the best time to do
it.

Let's look at a common victim of
student procrastination, a term paper that must be written. If you wait
until the last minute there may be unexpected interruptions or opportunities, you may be uninspired
or have “writer's block", pressure-plus-fatigue can decrease your writing
quality and speed. If writing the paper takes longer than expected (it usually
does) you face a difficult choice. You can submit a late paper, or one that
is poor quality compared with what you could produce with more time. If you begin early, you can take advantage of your moods and write when
you want to, not when you have to. You can make an almost-final draft, ignore
it for a few days (or give it to a friend for constructive criticism), then look
at it with “fresh eyes” and revise it into a paper you'll be proud to
submit. Perhaps the biggest benefit of good planning is the sigh of relief
and night of contented sleep before the paper is due, the satisfaction of knowing
that you conquered indecision, laziness and fear, that you acted responsibly and
did your best. What are the benefits of
studying physics regularly instead of only cramming before exams? You can
do repeated reviews that help you remember, make a summary and revise it, take
advantage of “creative incubation,” prepare for lectures, and use the
time just before an exam for realistic practice and effective
cramming. If you get behind in your classes, you may have to leap from
one cramming crisis to the next as every crisis puts you further behind in all
classes except the one you're cramming for. This game of catch-up, which
is inefficient because you don't get the benefits listed above, can be avoided
if you study regularly for each class.

Ask yourself, “Do I work well under pressure? In what ways does my
thinking quality depend on the type of pressure? on the type of project?”;
If you don't work well with pressure, try to find out why and what you can do
about it. { Some possibilities are discussed in the “Exam
Performance” part of Section 20.6. } If you work best with pressure,
try to analyze this high-intensity concentration and then figure out how you can
do it all of the time. Maybe you can pretend it's the night before the deadline,
to fool yourself into thinking like you do when the pressure is on. If you
can do high-intensity thinking in low-pressure situations, the flexibility of
your time planning increases and so does your freedom and sense of control. As much as possible, try to “use your
moods” and study what you want to study, when you want to do it. Then
monitor your progress in each class, for each phase of studying (reading, lectures,
making a summary, solving problems, review). If you are neglecting a class
(or part of the learning process) that you don't especially like, you can use
willpower to get yourself to do it. You
may find it useful to keep a record of the time spent studying each subject.
I keep three lists: a simple checklist for activities (exercise, ...)
and two “time lists” for writing. One list is a record of writing
time; I make a game of trying to reach my total-hours-per-week goal, and this
helps me to be more disciplined. The other list, which records the hours-per-chapter,
reminds me to use piecework motivation, to think quickly so I can get this book
finished -- with a satisfactory level of quality -- in a reasonable amount of
time. If necessary, use the “no choice”
weapon against procrastination. Instead of giving yourself a choice between
doing a high priority project and a desirable but lower priority activity, make
it a choice between doing the project or doing absolutely nothing -- just stare
at a blank wall. This confronts you with your procrastination, eliminates
rationalization, and soon gets you moving into action. If your studying is often interrupted by thoughts like “I'd rather
be doing ___", there is a conflict of interest. Physics will
do better in this competition if you enjoy it. I find physics fascinating
and hope that you also feel a genuine enthusiasm for it. But even if you
aren't convinced that physics is fun, you can use willpower to do what you know
is good for you. An effective strategy is to link physics (or any subject
you're studying) with a future goal and think about delayed gratification.
Say to yourself, “I'm doing physics now so I can do ___ later."

Cooperation and Teamwork
For many students, in many situations, studying with other students is an effective strategy. If you don't know something, your study partners can help you learn. And vice versa, which (because teaching is a good way to master ideas-and-skills) will help you learn. And study groups can help you form valuable friendships.
But for some students, in some situations, studying alone will be more effective.
Probably you'll want to do some of each. Based on experience you can try to know yourself, and your situations, well enough to know which blend of approaches (by studying with others and also on your own) will be most useful for you, in each of your classes.
And you can develop strategies for making your study groups more effective, for keeping all of you on-task, but in ways that are not too overbearing so you also promote good social relationships.

Efficiency
To get more done, you
can 1) waste less time, and 2) work more efficiently.
There may be more time than you realize. Do the following hours-per-week
seem reasonable? Sleep (50), classes (17), study (21) and meals (10), for
a total of 98 hours. There are 168 hours in a week: where did the other
70 hours go? / Some time is used for getting dressed, commuting, work
(if you have a job) and play, but not 70 hours. Do you think you
could find more studying time by using small blocks of time (like “transition
times” between major activities) that are usually wasted, and by taking large
blocks of non-study time and cutting them down to medium size blocks?
To minimize your transition time, be decisive and avoid procrastination.
A good way to use small time blocks is to have5-minute fillers, things you can do immediately
with no “warmup": review flashcards, read a textbook you carry
with you (and mark it to preserve your thoughts), review and mark lecture notes,...
Since “total time = sum of parts",
one way to reduce big blocks of study time is to think more quickly and
use better tools. When you study, if your attitude is analogous to
“working for piecework wages” you will be highly motivated to “learn
more per hour” and you probably will.
Be aware of your biological rhythms. Find the times of day when clear thinking
is easiest, and use these “prime times” for important creative thinking
and for the most challenging parts of your studying.
A writer never finishes a book. Instead, at some point they decide
it's “good enough” and they abandon it. Similarly, you must decide on an acceptable level of perfectionism.
Is it a wise use of your time to “polish” a project, or should you abandon
it and move on to another activity? Try to answer without being influenced
too much by laziness, impatience or frustration (these can make you give up too
soon) or by excessive pride (that keeps you working past the point where it is
worthwhile).
Section 20.1's “Rapid
Progress” and 20.4's “factors that contribute to
success” explain how the interdependence of physics tools can let you
make rapid progress. Analyze your tools and find the places where more time
and effort will bring the greatest improvement per hour invested.
You can also be efficient in non-study activities. For example, try
to combine the tasks on a weekly to-do list into efficient “errand runs”
that reduce the number of trips you make. Sometimes you can do two things
at once, like listening to educational tapes while you commute, jog, exercise,
do dishes or clean your room.
To organize
your school-related or general paperwork, thus making it easier to find things
quickly, use hanging files. Ask about them
at your college bookstore.
About 1/3 of
life is used for sleeping. But the time you invest in sleep isn't wasted;
it helps you stay healthy, and makes your waking time more efficient and enjoyable.
When you are tempted to “gain time” by sleeping less, consider this:
16 high-quality hours may be worth more than 19 lower-quality hours.
If you feel overworked during semesters, you may want to try “spreading
your vacations out." Study a little during the semester break (try
to find something that is relatively fun and will reduce next semester's workload),
then treat yourself to mini-vacations during the semester when you really need
them. { Or you may prefer to make your semester break a complete no-study
vacation and avoid a feeling of “taking your work home with you.” }
BALANCE: Education can be an exciting
part of life. But a full life is more than maximizing study-productivity.
The “Fully Alive” part of Section 20.4 examines attitudes
toward work and play. It encourages you to work hard, play joyfully, relax
with a free mind, and avoid the extremes of workaholic or lazy bum.

The following
sections (20.93, 20.95, and 20.96) are supplements to Sections 20.3, 20.5,
and 20.6.

1. FLASH CARDS If you mix problem-solving
practice with reviews of the flashcards and summary at the end of
each chapter in this book, it will do wonders for your “tool memory”
and problem solving skill.MAKING AND
USING FLASH CARDS: Put a CUE on one side of a 3x5 index card, and its
corresponding “ANSWER” on the other side. Then use the card for
self-testing: look at the cue, predict the answer, turn the card over to
see if it's correct. / Use cards for anything you want to memorize.
{ For example, information from summary notes,... Every chapter
of Physics: Tools for Problem
Solving has suggestions for specific cue-answer
pairs.
}The CUE is important; choose it carefully. Try to use the
same kind of cue that real problems will provide. And “minimize”
it; the less cue you need during flash card practice, the more likely it
is that
information within a problem will be enough to trigger the correct response.
Here is a minimum-cue example. The 4 basic right-triangle relationships
{definitions of sine, cosine & tangent, plus the formula “aa + bb =
cc"}
are often used in physics to split a diagonal line, / , into its horizontal and
vertical components. For review, should you use a cue like “What are
the 4 right- triangle formulas?” or “How can I split a diagonal into
components?” or “ / “ ? The last cue is best.
Why? Because a problem won't jab you in the ribs and shout in your ear “Hey
Sam! Why don't you use one of the 4 trigonometry formulas?”; Instead,
there will be a diagonal vector, / , that needs to be split, and the sight of
this must be enough to trigger your recall of the trig-formula tools. Do
you see why memorizing with a minimal “/” cue (instead of a long “give-away”
cue) is better preparation for real problem-solving situations? Almost
always,
the less cue you need for retrieval, the better.MULTIPLE CUES: One fact may have several cues. This
makes it more likely that the cues within a problem will let you retrieve the
fact from memory. [similar to funneling]The ANSWER can be practiced in different ways. You can WRITE
it (and also SEE), or SAY it (and also HEAR), or REHEARSE it mentally (along with
"VISUALIZING” of sight, sound, meaning,...). Try each method and
choose your favorite, or alternate them to store the knowledge in your memory
using several sense-modes, thus making it easier to retrieve.MULTIPLE ANSWERS: One thing can remind you of several associated
items. This is useful for real life problem-solving and creative thinking,
because it gives you different “options” to choose from. [similar
to fanning]EDITING
FLASH-CARDS: After you've used the cards awhile, you can change the
cues to make them more appropriate and minimal. Or sort cards into piles,
like well known pairs vs. those needing review, essentials vs. optionals, according
to topic,... Use paper clips or rubber bands to keep each group together.REVERSIBLE CARDS are useful in some
situations. For example, in learning a language you'll probably want to
translate in both directions. To learn English -> Spanish translation,
use the English side of the card as cue; for Spanish -> English translation,
just flip the cards over. / Or to learn a chemical reaction like “A
+ B -> C” in both directions, put “A + B -> __” on one side
and “__ -> C” on the other; then alternate which side you use as
cue.TWO COLUMN self-testing:
Put cues in one column, answers in the other, as in my end-of-chapter “flashcard”
sections. Then use the flash card method: cover the answer column,
look at the cue and predict the answer, then check by sliding the cover down one
line at a time. This format is good for some purposes, like memorizing language
vocabulary in both directions. And one page is more compact than many cards.
But flash cards are adaptable to a wider variety of situations, and cards can
be shuffled to avoid using one card as a cue for the next -- as occurs, for example,
when you hear a CD often, and one song reminds you of the next song.
In any form, flashcards force you to actively search your memory to find
a response to the cue, and this activity will help you remember.

2. SENSORY RECALL In some situations, “retrieval
from memory” will improve if you MATCH THE SENSE-MODE: During active
review, did you write (and see), or say (and hear), or mentally rehearse (and
sub-vocalize)? When you want to recall, use the same sense mode. Depending
on which method you used earlier, either try to write it (and remember the way
it feels and looks) to say (and hear) it, or to mentally sub-vocalize it.
/ RELIVE THE SCENE: To remember where you put the car keys, mentally review
(with as much realism as possible) what you did the last time you had them.
With suitable modification, this principle can be used for academic purposes.

3. MEMORY
TRICKSSummary
notes take advantage of a subject's internal logical organization. Now we'll look at ways to impose external organization onto any kind of material, even if it has no inherent logic of
its own. For example,
The Great Lakes
(and their spatial order) are SHE-OM: Superior, Huron, Erie,
and Ontario; Michigan is not in the continuous west-to-east sequence of “sheo”
).
To change clocks for daylight savings
time, remember to “spring forward” and “fall back."
“Can I draw a circle?”; { pi = 3.1416 }
“In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue."
Stalactites hang from a cave's ceiling,
stalagmites grow from the ground.
For unit-circle trigonometry (it doesn't matter if you don't understand
trig; just notice how the “links” are made): x and cosine
both have “ks” sounds, but y and sine don't. For the vector-splitting
results of “adjacent = hyp cos Z” and “opposite
= hyp sin Z", a & c (adjacent & cos) are early in the alphabet,
o & s (opposite & sine) are late.
Or for music, the treble clef space-notes spell “FACE” while the line-notes
are “EGBDF” (every good boy deserves favor).
How do you set a table? “fork knife spoon” are alphabetical;
the fork goes on the left (both have 4 letters), and knife spoon
right (5 letters).
a mental calendar:
For 1998, “411 537 526 416” gives the first Sunday of each month;
add 7, 14, 21 or 28 to get the other Sundays; for Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs,
Fri, or Sat, just add 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.

Most memory tricks depend on linked pairs.
For example, the Great Lakes are first linked with “she-om”. Later,
just remember this one word, and it will remind you of the lakes' initials &
location; they tag along as “free riders."
HOW TO MAKE LINKED PAIRS: You can use INITIALS (as in she-om, the cave's
c-g, or face & egbdf), COUNTING LETTERS (for 3.1416), SOUND ("ks"),
POETRY (In fourteen hundred and...), ALPHABETICAL ORDER (a & c early, o &
s late), or VISUAL IMAGERY (as in the action-phrases “spring forward &
fall back").
VISUAL IMAGERY is a good
way to form the “mediating link” between a pair of words you want to
remember. Use your imagination to invent vivid images that will be easy
to remember; make them humorous or dramatic, logical or ludicrous, use exciting
action or a story line. Make the paired words “interact” in some
way; this forms a strong memory link between them. To discover easily remembered
association links (using sound, alphabetical order, initials, interactive imagery,
or ...), brainstorm and edit -- first use
creative freeflow imagination to get lots of ideas (without judging whether they're
good ones or not) and then decide whether to use them. After you
have constructed exciting visual imagery, store it in your memory as interactive
pictures.
VISUAL LOGIC is sometimes a good
organizing method. For example, first try to memorize our 50 states in alphabetical
order, then by using the map shown below. [imagine the map described below]
The map makes it easier to memorize because of chunking and location.
/ It is easier to remember 12 “chunks” than 50 individual states.
Also notice that 9 of the 12 groupings contain four states, so you know (like
having a “string on your finger") that you must remember four states
for most groups. / The map uses “visual location memory”
which can be very effective. And the U.S. map is familiar; you've seen it
often, so you've already done much of the work needed to memorize its spatial
organization.

4.
MEMORY SYSTEMS If you want to recall
the 26 letters of the English alphabet, you'll probably do it in order (abc...
), not randomly. This is an example of long-chain association, the principle
used in most memory systems. A chain offers two advantages: 1) it's
easy to remember things in a certain order, and 2) you can keep track of
what you have and haven't done already (so you'll end up with 26 letters -- no
more, no less).
Here are short descriptions
of common memory systems:
For the CHAIN
SYSTEM, link each item to the one before it, using imagery or weaving them into
a story. / In the PEG SYSTEM, use concrete nouns associated with numbers
(like bun-shoe-tree-door-hive-sticks-heaven-gate-wine-hen that rhyme with 1-10)
or letters (ape-boy-cat-dog-egg,... for abcde...) and then link the first, second,
third, fourth,... things you want to remember with ape, boy, cat, dog,... respectively.
/ The LOCATION SYSTEM, used long ago by Greek and Roman orators, links items
with sequential locations in a building (or in an outdoor setting); when you want
to remember the items, just take a mental walk and retrieve the items one by one,
in the proper sequential order.
It takes
some time to learn a system, but the results (being able to remember things you
previously couldn't) may be worth the time you invest. Many readily available
books describe such systems in detail.

20.95 Active
Writing The following discussion can help you improve your skill in writing and
reading, speaking and listening. The same organizing principles, adapted
as appropriate, are used for all of these ways to communicate. { I recommend
that you take courses in writing and speaking, to help you improve these important
skills! }Using Visual Outlines: As an example
of a writing process [in 1987 when I first wrote this], I'll describe how I write a book chapter. First
I gather ideas from my research notes, memory and imagination. Then
I edit these ideas (to narrow the topic by deciding what is essential,
or is important supporting material, and omitting the rest) and structure them, logically and visually. Somevisual outline structuresare funneling (when other
ideas “come in” to help explain an idea, or inspire it, or...) andfanning (from
one idea, other ideas “go out” (as logical and practical
consequences of the idea, or ways it can be applied, or other ideas it inspires or
can help explain,...) and when a funneling-and-fanning is applied to many ideas, it producesbranching as with a central idea when other ideas branch
from it, and other ideas branch out from these, to form a free-form circular tree. Or there can be idea-clustersscattered around the page, with some space left between the clusters (for
additions and revision). / Or you may prefer other structures that use some logical-visual characteristics such as those in flowcharts, hierarchies,... Group-and-Number: No matter which
visual form is used (I tend to think in terms of funnel-fan & branching, but
use clusters for making outlines), the ideas are translated from “visually logical” outline-form to a “sequential linear” written-form. To
do this, I group the clusters and number them. After the initial
numbering I usually discover “leftover ideas", so instead of “1, 2,
3, 4, 5", after including the leftovers my numbering might end
up as “1, 2, 2.5, 2.7, 3, 4, 4.5, 5”. Then I write sentences and paragraphs, in numerical
order, based on the ideas in each cluster. / Computer programs with
"outlining” features can also be helpful. For example, the Outline-view of Word is useful for rearranging the sequencing of a linear written-form.Two Translations: In the group-and-number step, a writer translates ideas from a “visual
outline” form to a “linear written” form. As a reader, you
want to translate in the reverse direction; find the main ideas in the writing
and organize them in a way that shows their relationships (flowchart, cause-effect,
hierarchy, funnel-fan,...). And this, as discussed in Section 20.3, is the
main purpose of summary notes.

Like Section
20.2's problem solving steps (orientation, planning, action, checking), writing
steps (gather ideas, edit-and-structure, group-and-number, write) often overlap;
while a writer is doing one step, the other processes are also occurring.
These steps can be repeated at different levels
of detail (book, chapter, section, sub-section, paragraph, sentence), like levels
of mapping (world, country, state, city, campus). And for the steps at each
level, there can be “successive approximations." I often draw
outlines in pencil, and usually write with a word processor, because this makes
it easier to do revisions.

20.96 Exam Tactics SHOULD YOU GUESS? It depends on
the point policy. Consider three grading schemes for an ABCDE multiple choice
exam: A) If nothing is deducted for wrong answers, guessing is rewarded.
B) If correct and wrong answers are given +4 and -1 points, respectively, average-luck
guessing on 10 questions will be 2 correct (+8 points) and 8 wrong (-8 points)
and you'll break even. But if you can eliminate one or more options, the
guessing odds are in your favor. C) If +1 and -1 points are given
for correct and wrong answers, a 2-of-10 result will get -6 points (+2 and -8),
and guessing is punished. MULTIPLE-CHOICE
LOGIC. A city in California is: a) Los Angeles, b) Grizzly Flat, c)
Lodi, d) San Francisco, e) all of the above. / Beginning with
what you know about LA and SF, logic tells you that “e” is the answer,
even if you've never heard of Grizzly Flat or Lodi.